


“There are nights when the wolves are silent and only the moon howls.”

by Stu (stunudo)



Series: Craters [2]
Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: genderneutral reader, reader is an ubsub
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-20
Updated: 2018-06-20
Packaged: 2019-05-26 02:23:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,958
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14990693
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stunudo/pseuds/Stu
Summary: Setting: Season 10Bold type is present.





	“There are nights when the wolves are silent and only the moon howls.”

**Author's Note:**

> Setting: Season 10  
> Bold type is present.

“There are nights when the wolves are silent and only the moon howls.”  
George Carlin  


**  
Agent Reid kept his Kevlar vest on as he strode back into the holding cell. You didn’t think he could look thinner and yet the dark material stole your attention. He looked like a child playing dress up, it stirred something within you. He was still in control here, you had to remember that. But some part of you wanted to protect him from the truth of what Jerry did. Of what you did.**

**“Y/N, we didn’t find Jerry.” His voice was short. “You know that protecting Jerry is going to be worse for you, right? You understand that.”**

**“No, I’m, no. That’s not it. I just am not sure you’re going to like what you find.” You closed your eyes, hiding from his distracting eyes, always trying to search yours.**

**“Y/N, it’s okay. I’m here to listen, remember?” He sat on the floor in front of your bunk. Criss cross apple sauce. That floor must have been biting with cold. “When was the last time you saw Jerry, Y/N?”**

**You didn’t like sitting when he was standing, but sitting on a cot with a doctor sitting on the floor was just, wrong. You slid down and sat in front of him, hugging your knees in your arms. “Good kids go their whole life without any fun. Jerry says its a good thing we aren’t good kids, then.”**

**“Y/N? What would you and Jerry do for fun?”**

**“Jerry has more fun than me. Drugs and girls and alcohol. But I like watching for fun, its easier to stop watching.” You closed your eyes real tight as a demonstration.**

**“What would you watch, Y/N?” The Doctor-Agent’s voice was soft, his busy hands stilled, finally. You noticed a clear wire was lose against his vest, an earpiece dangling from when he left. You rubbed your nose against your knee, your pants needed a wash anyhow. You were going to have to break this boy or watch him leave, too. But if you kept talking, he would keep listening. That was power.  
**  
_____________________________________  
June 29, 2012

I was walking backwards with the old hide-a-bed sofa wedged in my arms, Jerry was checking his phone, barely holding up his end of the couch. I knew it had to be the hottest weekend of the year so far. The sweat dripping into my eyes as I stood, struggling and waited.

“Forget that shit,” Jerry shook his head and slipped his fancy new phone in the back pocket of his cargo shorts. “Y/N, here, we got to twist.”

We managed to get the couch into the basement of my mom’s house before Jerry gave up on moving his other things with a beer. He had been kicked out of another girlfriend’s place. This one was Traci and she actually wasn’t mean to me, but I think she knew something. That’s why he was with me now, claimed I was the only one who really got him.

He was the only person who spent time with me that wasn’t paid to do it, besides my mom. But she was gone for the summer, she drove for them big buses and got extra to work where they sent her. She wanted Jerry to pay rent, but we both knew I would be paying extra to cover his share. It went unsaid.

“Want to go over to Bakem for the cranberry festival?” Jerry asked, head down on his phone.

“Why?”

“Lots of people, music, drunk strangers,” Jerry’s voice was dripping honey. He reached behind him and stroked my elbow as I leaned down to glance at the pictures from the previous year’s festival. “I could find someone to play with, I’ve been good for so long, Y/N.”

I smiled at him, knowing he was upset about his break up. “If that’s what it takes to get your mind off things?”

“Uh, yes! That’s a yes?!” His eyes brightened as I rolled my eyes. “You’ll love it, I swear.” He spun and hugged me tightly, nuzzling against my half bent torso. The butterflies started as soon as he loaded his truck with a weekend’s worth of camping equipment and extra beer.

July 1, 2012

She woke up moaning in her sleep, a thin line of blood caked along her hair line. She sat up in a jolt, I waited. She searched the tent for an explanation, but she calmed down when she saw Jerry was still passed out. She found her clothes quickly, I had folded them and left them by the zipper door. Her thighs were scratched up pretty badly, but she hopped over the lip of the tent and out into the dampness of the woods in morning.

I used Jerry’s phone and texted her friends from the number he got from her phone the night before. I just let them know she needed a ride. I didn’t want to spoil the lazy Sunday anymore than it was. She cursed when she saw that her phone was out of battery, but she shuffled off the gravel path towards the main road. Something told me not to follow her, but I wanted to clean up before Jerry got up, eventually.

I didn’t worry about what the woman would say what happened, I trusted that Jerry had reassured the friends enough the night before. I didn’t think much about her after that, really. Except sometimes when I closed my eyes, hers would look back. Their terror and pleading confusing, because it wasn’t a bad memory. The conflict lingered like morning coffee breath.  
______________________  
 **  
“Garcia?” Hotch’s voice answered offhandedly.**

**“Sir, there is not much on the books or even off the books for, Y/N.” She spoke over the fluttering of keys. “No driver’s license, working the same job for the past ten years. Swanson’s Ridge Bar and Motel. Barely graduated high school. Only child to a single mom, whom they still live with.”**

**“Any arrests, Baby Girl,” Derek interjected.**

**“Sugar, you know I would have lead with the juicy stuff.”**

**“Any reports from the school?” Kate asked, “You said they barely graduated, were there any developmental or social concerns?”**

**“Nothing from the counselors at the high school,” Garcia mused. “I will dig deeper, this stuff goes back to the eighties, so not a lot has been digitized.”**

**“Alright, Garcia, look into the mother as well,” Hotch mentioned. “She has been the owner of the house where Swanson and Y/N have been living during this whole ordeal. See if she can help us narrow the profile down.”**

**“My fingers are all yours, sir.”**

**“Thanks, Mama.” Derek shaking his head, ended the conference call.**

**“Can I ask you something?” You peered over the ridges of your knees and looked at the man-child seated before you.**

**“Of course, and you can ask something else, since that was something.” He pursed his lips like a frog, his face had more skin than it knew what to do with.**

**“What made you want to become a member of the F.B.I.?” Your head tilted as he recovered from the detour the conversation had taken.**

**“A few things, but essentially, I find the study of behavior fascinating and when applied to law enforcement, my team ends up helping people.” He was holding back something, but his eyes were catching your reactions. “Why?”**

**“I just figured you and me are about the same age, but here you are a doctor-fed and here I am ‘a person of interest.’ It’s like we’re a like and different in all the big ways.”**

**“You know I am an only child, too?” He was sharing with you, unexpectedly.**

**“See, what I’m saying?” You chuckled a little, “How come you didn’t get a brother or a sister? Parents split up? Mom give up on men?”**

**He pointed at you when you hit the nail on the head. “My dad left when I was ten, but my mom says she didn’t need anymore kids.”**

**“My old man left when I was five, backdoor slamming in the middle of the night. My mom always said I was a full time job, no way she could handle another one.”**

**“It’s nice that your mom let Jerry come live with you,” Dr. Reid brought the flow of bonding to a waterfall, your stomach plummeting with the loss of ease.**

**“If the rent was paid, she didn’t mind.” I said, shrugging. “She was always on the road anyhow, she didn’t bother us. We didn’t bother her.”**

**“Didn’t? Y/N?” Spencer stood up suddenly. You scrambled to your feet, worried. “Y/N, what happened to your mom?”**

**He shoved the ear piece back in his head and looked over his shoulder at the locals. Shit.  
**  
_______________________________  
September 19, 2014

The phone was ringing in the office and I finally got the last couple grabbing a hook up room settled to answer it.

“Swanson’s Hotel, front desk.” I begrudgingly answered.

“Y/N, Y/N Y/L/N! That no good sonofabitch is holed up with some, young woman, and they aren’t being too discreet about it.” My mother’s voice was angry whispering into the phone. I rubbed my eyebrows and sighed.

“Jerry brings home people a lot, just stomp on the floor a bit and he should get the hint.” I pinned the phone in between my face and shoulder handing over the room keys.

“Thanks a lot, fa-reak.” The woman muttered as she unwrapped herself from the loser of the week in order to walk to her room.

“Mom, I need to get back to work. I’ll, I’ll talk to him in the morning.” I didn’t really care if Jerry was loud, but my mom hadn’t built up my tolerance.

“You better, Y/N. I deserve some peace in my own house.”

“Understood.”

The hours dragged on, I handed the keys over to the daytime desk clerk as the sun splattered welts across the sky. Shrugging into my jean jacket I began the regular walk home. About one day a week, Jerry would remember I didn’t have a car and he would drive up and let me buy him breakfast. I knew today wasn’t going to be one of those days.

The fog hung along the small yard as I strolled to the backdoor. Suddenly Jerry was in my face with his hands up, trying to stop me from walking past the mudroom.

“Listen, Y/N, before you freak out on me. I didn’t mean for this to happen. But you know your mom, she got pissed and barged in on me and Sharleen. I didn’t know it was going to happen. I swear.”

Terror from the girl in the woods’s eyes had been transplanted onto my mother’s face. I shoved passed Jerry, which was easier than I could have hoped. I found her on the couch, she must have been dragged there because her head wasn’t resting on any of the throw pillows. By the sag of her jaw, I knew.

I feel to my knees and brushed her hair out of her face, the cold skin made me flinch. But I owed this to her, I made her comfortable before I turned on my best friend.

“How the fuck did you manage to kill my mother, Jerry?”

“I don’t know, honest.” He was biting his thumb.

“Why didn’t you call 911, you asshole?!” My hands were pulling at my hair in clumps.

“Cops, man, can’t be having cops here. She died naturally, ambulance wouldn’t have changed that.” His words lobbed pathetically at the ground.

“You think that fucking matters?” He flinched at my words. “This is on you Jerry.”  
_____________________________________

**Author's Note:**

> This and other works are originally posted on stunudo.tumblr.com


End file.
